the Fifth Age of Ert

Classes

The most common class in the world is the Rogue. They should also be the most common class in a party. Rogues are Heroes trained in offensive combat who have life skills. They are excellent Melee Fighters against a single Villain. They can do a lot of damage in combat.

Rogues also have the desperately needed skills for any role playing adventure. Rogues are the most open of all classes for background and skills. So if in doubt, play a Rogue.

Every party needs at least one Warrior and large parties can handle two. Warriors are combat specialist. This is very important to realize, they have few life skills. All their focus in on Combat Control. Warriors have many defensive combat skills allowing them to stay alive longer and handle mobs of villains. Warriors don’t focus on kills, those will come in time. They focus on controlling and surviving a combat.

There is the Cleric class. These are Fighters that have Faith Powers that can support other Heroes. There are many different types of support but they all ofter some Healing. A Cleric is important in any party. They however do have some religious guidelines they must follow (or should follow).

Mage use powerful magic against their enemies. They play the a similar role to Rogues in that though their spells they provide high damage and some abilities others cannot offer. They are typically the most fragile of classes and cannot survive Melee long. But protected and raining down spells from the back they are one of the most deadly of the classes.

Caster is a Rogue type class that has less offensive combat skills in exchange for slow casting spells. They have weaker Magic than Mages and often can only cast them between combat. But they provide several roles in one Hero. They have some support spells for combat (if they can prepare) and some Magic to help with Role Playing puzzles (like a Mage). The also can fight nearly as good as a Rogue.

Difficult Classes

Followers of the ancient ways is the Shaman class. These Heroes are the most dependent upon timing. When they can prepare for battle, they are the most powerful of all the fighting classes. They can go offensive or defensive in the fight better than Rogues or Warriors. They also have limited numbers of buffs for fights.

Most importantly, when they don’t have time to prepare for a fight they are just weak Melee fighters. Nothing special about them.

A Shaman can be a fun challenge for experience players. they also have a few Spells abilities.

Lastly there is the Druid. I think this is the most challenging Hero to play. They are very rare but available to in larger parties. A druid can shape-shift into different Animals each serving different roles. The problem is that it takes a long time to shift, so they are stuck in the roles for the whole fight. Or worst, they can miss a fight. They also have the Human form that has some supporting Magic. Druids can do it all, with the right timing.

NPC Classes

The Vagabond is a person with only skills. They are almost as common as Rogues in the world. Some have minor rituals that help them in their trade. But unless the Hero wants to be a non-fighting Backsmith, he is MUCH better off playing the Rogue class.

There are Priest which are Clerics that focus only on the Faith Powers and not on the combat. I go back and forth between having this class in the difficult and the NPC list. Good for players that are not interested in combat but want to socialize and help.